𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. IX - 《future bff, maybe?》

oOo

Diana wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stood up, zipping her hoodie up to her neck now that the heat of the fire abandoned her. She nodded at her brother and sister. "I'm heading down to the lake, wanna come with?"

Felix asked around a mouthful, "You gonna get all philosophical and stare out into the water or some shit like that?"

"I might." Diana shrugged, her cheeks heating up.

Both teens shared a deadpan look. "Then we pass," Alice stated and went back to eating what little she had left.

Diana shrugged again, a small lopsided smile forming on her lips. "Your loss. You guys know I'm great at dramatically looking into the distance. I've perfected that distant yet contemplative stare," she said theatrically, using her hands.

Alice nodded distractedly, looking anywhere but her sister; she knew how much it annoyed her. "Mmhm, we believe you, good for you. Piss off." The last two words she actually looked up to say.

Diana scoffed, feigning having taken insult. Sam and Irene gave her a twin look, warning her to be cautious out there. She nodded at them in understanding and left, glad they had yet to broach that morning's event. She doubted they would let it die, but still hoped they would. She never wanted to think about it again.

The final rays of sunlight had given way to the inky purples and dark blues of the sky above, and Diana took advantage of the falling darkness to walk around camp without being seen, her naturally light footfalls a blessing. She had nothing to hide, but needed a moment of peace only solitude could provide, since her brother and sister wanted nothing to do with her momentarily.

The water lapping softly at the stony shore greeted her as she arrived without attention and let herself sink onto a boulder, only slightly injuring her tailbone in the process.

After finally sitting down and visibly letting her body relax, all her aches accentuated; arms, legs, hand, like damn, even her boobs were sore.

Diana brought her legs up, crossed her arms over her knees and propped her chin on her forearm. Now it was time to make good on her promise and dial up on the theatrics.

The water looked hauntingly beautiful like someone had laid down a carpet of midnight blue for the stars to dance upon. The moon was full and its pale light shone down delicately on the gentle ripples and waves of the water, like droplets of silver on blue velvet.

Diana's heart swelled at the sight, she loved the moon so much, always had; a passive watcher of the goings-on of the Earth it looked upon.

Her Avô and hypocrite of an Abuela had made sure that their grandchildren were raised to believe in God. And now, in the midst of humanity's worst crisis, Diana wondered if She was anything like the moon; casually looking on without intervening, or worse, if this had all been Her doing. Oh, she wanted to be angry at God; it would be easy, blaming it all on a divine entity, like mankind hadn't had it coming, like they were completely innocent and undeserving, and it was all fault of a vengeful and tyrant god.

Her eyes dragged away from the moon's intoxicating stare and focused on the fainter blinks of the stars curiously gazing back at her.

She forced herself to calm down, reasoning that it would do her no good to think such thoughts.

She remembered the last time she'd been that furious at God. Her eyes brimmed with tears. Wassup, 'vô, she sent out casually, hoping to distract her from the grief, if you can hear me, please watch over us. We really need it, like, a lot. Watch over your family, or whatever's left of it. Put in a good word for us with the Big Woman, yeah? Tell Her I'm not mad, not that She cares either way, and yeah, and that we'd appreciate Her help or guidance or whatever. I love you, Avô, and we miss you. Hopefully, we won't be seeing each other anytime soon, though. So yeah, bye, I guess?